Travel Guide Široki Brijeg

Široki Brijeg/Широки Бријег (pronounced "shiny chiroki") has a population of about 6,500, 99% of whom are Bosnian Croats. It is the capital of the municipality of Široki Brijeg (28,000 inhabitants) and the canton of West Herzegovina (92,000 inhabitants). The city is 21 km northwest of Mostar, 43 km south of the Blidinje Nature Park and 64 km southeast of Tomislavgrad. Bus connections to Mostar (6-11/day), Čapljina, Međugorje, Neum, Tomislavgrad, Livno, Travnik, etc.This small cantonal capital is located in the valley of the Lištica River bears the name "big hill" (Široki Brijeg). A privileged passage between Herzegovina and the Tropojle, the site was inhabited by Illyrians and fortified in the Middle Ages, but it remained very rural and its Catholic population almost cut off from the world until the beginning of the 20th century. The city also remained outside the economic boom of socialist Yugoslavia. It was indeed "punished" by Tito and renamed Lištica until 1996. Because Široki Brijeg was an Ustasha stronghold: between 1941 and 1945, many inhabitants and monks of the city participated in massacres throughout the country. Still suffering from a bad reputation, Široki Brijeg is worth a stop for its Franciscan museum and its Borak spring, which has a park, a restaurant, old mills and a path leading to the remains of the Borak fortress. For more adventure in the surroundings, it is possible to go and discover herds of wild horses.